If you pursue a master's degree in clinical, counseling & applied psychology, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #7 most popular program in the country. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
College Factual looked at 66 colleges and universities when compiling its 2024 Best Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology Master's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 5,257 master's degrees in clinical, counseling & applied psychology to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology School for Your Master's Degree
The clinical psychology master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
The overall quality of a master's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we consider a school's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking which itself looks at a collection of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Early-Career Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of master's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their master's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to clinical, counseling & applied psychology students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of clinical, counseling & applied psychology students who choose to seek a master's degree at the school.
Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
Student Debt - How easy is it for clinical, counseling & applied psychology to pay back their student loans after receiving their master's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized clinical, counseling & applied psychology related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for clinical, counseling & applied psychology students working on their master's degree.
The clinical psychology school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology Master's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region.
Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology in the Far Western US Region
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in clinical, counseling & applied psychology.
10 Top Far Western US Region Schools for a Master's in Clinical Psychology
It is hard to beat The Chicago School of Professional Psychology at Los Angeles if you want to pursue a master's degree in clinical, counseling & applied psychology. The Chicago School Los Angeles Campus is a small private not-for-profit school located in the large city of Los Angeles.
Master's graduates who receive their degree from the clinical psychology program make around $51,294 in the first couple years of working.
Every student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in clinical, counseling & applied psychology needs to check out University of Southern California. Located in the large city of Los Angeles, USC is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Master's recipients from the clinical, counseling & applied psychology program at University of Southern California make $6,290 more than the average college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Pepperdine University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in clinical, counseling & applied psychology. Pepperdine is a large private not-for-profit university located in the large suburb of Malibu.
Students who graduate with their master's from the clinical psychology program state that they receive average early career wages of $47,307.
Santa Clara University is a great option for individuals interested in a master's degree in clinical, counseling & applied psychology. SCU is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit university located in the midsize city of Santa Clara.
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology master's degree recipients from Santa Clara University earn a boost of approximately $6,550 above the typical earnings of clinical, counseling & applied psychology majors.
National University is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of San Diego.
Those clinical, counseling & applied psychology students who get their master's degree from National University make $4,016 more than the typical clinical psychology student.
Alliant is a small private for-profit university located in the city of San Diego.
Master's recipients from the clinical, counseling & applied psychology program at Alliant International University earn $16,153 more than the typical college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Located in the city of San Francisco, USFCA is a private not-for-profit university with a moderately-sized student population.
Those clinical, counseling & applied psychology students who get their master's degree from University of San Francisco make $5,265 more than the average clinical psychology grad.
Located in the rural area of Palo Alto, Pacific Graduate School of Psychology is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.
Those clinical, counseling & applied psychology students who get their master's degree from Palo Alto University receive $2,504 more than the typical clinical psychology graduate.
Our Master of Science in Psychology program is designed to extend your knowledge and discipline in psychology, preparing you for a wide variety of professions and contexts.
These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology Master's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region award.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
college factual
The clinical psychology master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
